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Imagination's graphics chip tech is used in the iPad Mini Retina (above), the iPad Air, and the iPhone 5S.

(Credit: Apple)

John Metcalfe, executive vice president and COO at Imagination Technologies, graphics chip supplier to Apple, chatted with CNET for a few minutes about the future.

Imagination's graphics chip technology -- which must manage, among other things, the millions of pixels on the display -- has been used consistently by Apple in its mobile products, and Imagination's technology appears prominently in the iPad Air, iPad Mini Retina, and iPhone 5S.

I asked Metcalfe in a recent interview about the future of its graphics chips and, by extension, technologies that could appear in future Apple products -- though the latter is obviously only a decision that Apple can ultimately make.

Q: What is your next high-performance GPU and what is the focus?

Metcalfe: The PowerVR Series6XT. The focus of the changes in the 6XT is improving performance per milliwatt or performance per watt.

(Note that performance-per-watt is shorthand for increasing the performance of a chip without increasing -- or without a disproportionately large increase in -- power consumption.)

Why the focus on performance-per-watt?

Metcalfe: High-end smartphones [and tablets to some extent] today are limited. The performance at the start of the day is higher, let's say, than performance after 10 minutes of gaming because the processors get heated up and thermal shutdown occurs and performance has to be throttled because heat can't be dissipated.

And the number of cores is important too, correct?

Metcalfe: Graphics tend to have a lot of parallel workloads. You're processing data that covers millions of pixels. And it's quite easy to packet those workloads up between different [processing] units. And [GPUs] have very good scalability. In other words, you have a unit of performance that you can replicate. " (Scalability in this case means that adding a core or "unit" results in a corresponding, or linear, increase in performance.)

What about the trend toward hybrids? It's not unreasonable to assume that Apple has bigger plans for the A series processors. After all, they have made a big deal out of the "desktop-class" performance of the 64-bit A7 chip.

Metcalfe: We've seen a trend of hybrid tablet PCs. We have our eye firmly on moving higher up the performance ladder. Not only hybrids but full PCs. We would need to get to higher performance than the cores we have currently announced. But we don't have to change the architecture fundamentally in any way.

(Credit: Sarah Tew/CNET)

In his job as Apple CEO, Tim Cook is mostly known for having a demeanor that is in some ways antithetical to Steve Jobs. Instead of bombast and bold claims, Cook's soothing Southern-tinged speech and steely temperament have marked him as a man whose head could be nothing but level. That is, unless, you're a shareholder who thinks climate change is bogus.

At Apple's annual shareholder meeting Friday, Cook shot down the suggestion from a conservative, Washington, D.C.-based think tank that Apple give up on environmental initiatives that don't contribute to the company's bottom line.

The organization, the National Center for Public Policy Research (NCPP), hasn't taken too kindly to Apple's increasing reliance on green energy, nor Cook's hiring of Lisa Jackson, the former head of the Environmental Protection Agency, to spearhead sustainability efforts for the iPhone-maker. And NPCC General Counsel Justin Danhof said as much in a statement issued to Apple ahead of the meeting.

"We object to increased government control over company products and operations, and likewise mandatory environmental standards," Danhof wrote alongside NPCC's demand that the pledge be voted on at the meeting. "This is something [Apple] should be actively fighting, not preparing surrender."

Cook came back with a harsh reminder that despite the company's mounds of cash, it is not in teh business of caving to shareholder demands, especially politically motivated one's. "We do a lot of things for reasons besides profit motive," Cook said. "We want to leave the world better than we found it."

Danhof's proposal was voted down, of course, but not before Cook put the final touches on his rebuttal. To any who found the company's environmental dedication either ideologically or economically ill-advised, they can "get out of the stock," Cook said.

(Via Mashable)

Edgar Aguilar, a Link-SF user.

(Credit: Donna Tam/CNET)

About two or three weeks ago, recovering addict Edgar Aguilar walked into a tiny computer lab situated in the Mid-Market area of San Francisco -- the new battleground for the friction between the tech industry's wealthiest and the city's most vulnerable residents. He had been checking out a new mobile site advertised by a flyer he spotted. It promised an easy way to connect the homeless to social services. Just out of substance abuse rehab and unemployed, Aguilar figured he'd give it a try.

He had no idea that less a month later, he'd share the floor with some of San Francisco's most powerful officials. On Friday, Aguilar stood next to San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee and other civic and nonprofit leaders as they officially launched the new Link-SF homeless services mobile site, the same site Aguilar used to find work as an on-call hospitality worker.

"That's really been a blessing for me," he told a group of reporters who crammed into the computer lab at the St. Anthony Foundation.

A computer lab inside a homeless services nonprofit is not the usual place for a tech industry press conference, but it is sobering, and it may be the most powerful. Downstairs, the rain poured down intermittently outside as homeless and low-income people waited in line to eat.

San Francisco's officials wants the mobile site, the brainchild of Zendesk software engineers and nonprofits St. Anthony Foundation and the Gray Area Foundation, to be a symbol of what could be. In a place where tech, and those who have supported tech businesses through tax cuts, is vilified, this partnership is meant to show what kind of good a business like Zendesk, an enterprise software company, can do.

The Link-SF site, accessible on the Web but optimized for mobile phones, is pegged as a "Yelp-like" site for homeless services. Users can look up resources for food, shelter, medical services, and places to access showers or technology. Aguilar said he appreciated that the site showed him all the nearby computer labs open for the public and even told him how long it would take for him to walk to each one. Having access to a computer helped him apply for jobs.

It may seem odd to create a site for mobile phones when you're talking about serving the poor. After all, they're in need of the most basic of services. But Zendesk Software Engineer Ken Nakagawa, one of seven engineers who worked on the site, said most of the impoverished population in San Francisco have mobile phones and those devices have become lifelines to important resources. According to St. Anthony, 45 percent of people who use the nonprofit's technology training program own a smartphone.

Zendesk was the first company to sign up for a Mid-Market location, which also came with a tax cut (like the one made infamous by Twitter). Nakagawa said he and his team visited the local Metro PCS store, located near Zendesk's office, to find out what phones are the most popular among the residents in the are so they could design with the choice operating systems in mind.

For sure, Zendesk's contribution to this project can't singlehandedly solve the tension highlighted by Google bus protests and home evictions spurred by the rising value of property in a tech-centric economy. But it could provide a modicum of hope that people in tech actually want to be a part of the local community, not displace it.

(Credit: helenasmed/Instagram)

Some young people might hesitate to lean their heads together for selfies after headlines trumpeted a possible link between selfies and head lice this week. But in Sweden, young people are snapping group selfies with abandon -- and apparently little concern for itchiness -- to make a political statement.

It's part of a campaign by the Social Democratic Youth League (SSU) aimed at promoting a sense of community and shared responsibility. The SSU is touting a far lesser-known buzzword for its effort: wefie (notice the presence of the "we" there).

"Sefies are so 2013," a page for the campaign reads. "This year, there are far more important subjects. Friendship. Community. Solidarity. If you want to see more 'we' and less 'me' in society -- take a wefie (it's like a selfie but together with friends). Because if you find another angle, there's room for more."

The goal is to get as many people as possible who support SSU's goals of snapping wefies, tagging them #wefie2014, and uploading them to Instagram. So far, more than 750 wefies have been shot and tagged. "Help us turn wefie into Word of The Year 2014 -- no matter your political vote," the youth league says, referring to "selfie" being named 2013 word of the year by the Oxford English Dictionaries.

The Social Democratic Youth League is a branch of the country's oldest political party, the Swedish Social Democratic Party, which has recently enjoyed a resurgence.

The wefie campaign is the brainchild of Swedish creative agency Deportivo, the folks behind Unsnooze, an iPhone app that aims to rouse snooze-button addicts in winter-shrouded Nordic countries with a bit of early morning competition.

"During the past 10 years, we have seen a shift from 'we' to 'me' -- an increasing egoism with clear effects," the SSU says. "Youth unemployment is increasing and the path to interesting job opportunities is nowadays further away as students' grades weaken. For those who reach their dream jobs and educational programs, new challenges await -- like the obvious thing, such as getting a place to live. In these times, housing shortages turns the hunt into a battle."

Meanwhile, the selfie-and-lice scare, which started with claims by one woman who owns an anti-lousing business in Southern California, has crawled all the way to Scandinavia and into the SSU's consciousness.

"The only negative side effect in showing solidarity seems to be a risk of getting head lice," the group posted on Instagram alongside an image of a lice-busting solution. "E-mail us if you need anti-lice lotion."

The big question, of course, is whether wefies will take hold in the US. Because a John Boehner/Nancy Pelosi wefie? That'd be worth a million creepy-crawlies.

That's Stefan Löfven (left), the leader of the Swedish Social Democratic Party, leaning in for a wefie.

(Credit: helenasmed/Instagram)

Some young people might hesitate to lean their heads together for selfies after headlines trumpeted a possible link between selfies and head lice this week. But in Sweden, young people are snapping group selfies with abandon -- and apparently little concern for itchiness -- to make a political statement.

It's part of a campaign by the Social Democratic Youth League (SSU) aimed at promoting a sense of community and shared responsibility. The SSU is touting a far lesser-known buzzword for effort: wefie (notice the presence of the "we" there).

"Sefies are so 2013," a page for the campaign reads. "This year, there are far more important subjects. Friendship. Community. Solidarity. If you want to see more 'we' and less 'me' in society - take a wefie (it's like a selfie but together with friends). Because if you find another angle, there's room for more."

The goal is to get as many people as possible who support SSU's goals snapping wefies, tagging them #wefie2014, and uploading them to Instagram. So far, more than 750 wefies have been shot and tagged. "Help us turn wefie into Word of The Year 2014 -- no matter your political vote," the youth league says, referring to "selfie" being named 2013 world the year by the Oxford English Dictionaries.

The Social Democratic Youth League is a branch of the country's oldest political party, the Swedish Social Democratic Party, which has recently enjoyed a resurgence.

The wifie campaign is the brainchild of Swedish creative agency Deportivo, the folks behind Unsnooze, an iPhone app that aims to rouse snooze-button addicts in winter-shrouded Nordic countries with a bit of early-morning competition.

"During the past 10 years, we have seen a shift from 'we' to 'me' -- an increasing egoism with clear effects," the SSU says. "Youth unemployment is increasing and the path to interesting job opportunities is nowadays further away as students' grades weaken. For those who reach their dream jobs and educational programs, new challenges await -- like the obvious thing, such as getting a place to live. In these times, housing shortages turns the hunt into a battle."

Meanwhile, the selfie-and-lice scare, which started with claims by one woman who owns an anti-lousing business in Southern California, has crawled all the way to Scandinavia and into the SSU's consciousness.

"The only negative side effect in showing solidarity seems to be a risk of getting head lice," the group posted on Instagram alongside an image of a lice-busting solution. "E-mail us if you need anti-lice lotion."

The big question, of course, is whether wefies will take hold in the US. Because a John Boehner/Nancy Pelosi wefie? That'd be worth a million lice.

That's Stefan Löfven (left), the leader of the Swedish Social Democratic Party, leaning in for a wefie.

In an era when more people are watching movies at home or on their mobile devices, Dolby and Hollywood are hoping sound will lure people back into theaters.

Dolby Atmos, an evolution of Dolby's 5.1 and 7.1 systems, was used on two of this year's Oscar-nominated movies for sound mixing, "Gravity" and "The Hobbit: Desolation of Smaug." The system includes speakers in the ceiling theater, in additional to the front, back, and sides of a theater. The real audio innovation comes from the ability to isolate sounds and control where, when, and which sounds come through each speakers.

Stuart Bowling, Dolby's director of market development, explains: "When something moves through the room, it basically goes from speaker to speaker to speaker instead of the way it does normally when it hits every speaker and then fades."

As a theater goer, you can track sounds as they make their way around the room. So, for example, when a helicopter flies across the sky in a movie, you can distinctly hear the sound of the blades travel above your head and across the ceiling from one end to the other. Currently only 450 theaters are equipped with the Dolby Atmos system.

Bowling said "Hobbit" Director Peter Jackson used the sound technology to draw the audience into the movie's fantasy world. "He really wants you to feel like you're part of Middle Earth, feel like you're part of the journey the characters, Bilbo, are going through," he said.

Academy Award-winning sound mixer Christopher Boyes used Dolby Atmos on both "Hobbit" movies: "Atmos is the opportunity for me to take the next step forward in immersing the audience in sounds that push the story forward. And at the same time, help the audience be in the environment of the film itself."

Working closely with filmmakers Peter Jackson and Fran Walsh, Boyes says the trick was not to overwhelm the audience with sound, especially in scenes with a lot of action where the audience needed to focus on certain characters. "We're in orchestrated chaos at times in the 'Hobbit,' with hundreds of Orcs attacking and trying to keep our eyes on our heroes as they battle all these forces," Boyes said.

We'll find out this weekend if Dolby Atmos, which can also be used to remix older films, has what it takes to win an Oscar. Whether Atmos can convince people to spend a night out at the movies, that remains to be seen -- and heard.

In an era when more people are watching movies at home or on their mobile devices, Dolby and Hollywood are hoping sound will lure people back into theaters.

Dolby Atmos, an evolution of Dolby's 5.1 and 7.1 systems, was used on two of this year's Oscar-nominated movies for sound mixing, "Gravity" and "The Hobbit: Desolation of Smaug." The system includes speakers in the ceiling theater, in additional to the front, back, and sides of a theater. The real audio innovation comes from the ability to isolate sounds and control where, when, and which sounds come through each speakers.

Stuart Bowling, Dolby's director of market development, explains: "When something moves through the room, it basically goes from speaker to speaker to speaker instead of the way it does normally when it hits every speaker and then fades."

As a theater goer, you can track sounds as they make their way around the room. So, for example, when a helicopter flies across the sky in a movie, you can distinctly hear the sound of the blades travel above your head and across the ceiling from one end to the other. Currently only 450 theaters are equipped with the Dolby Atmos system.

Bowling said "Hobbit" Director Peter Jackson used the sound technology to draw the audience into the movie's fantasy world. "He really wants you to feel like you're part of Middle Earth, feel like you're part of the journey the characters, Bilbo, are going through," he said.

Academy Award-winning sound mixer Christopher Boyes used Dolby Atmos on both "Hobbit" movies: "Atmos is the opportunity for me to take the next step forward in immersing the audience in sounds that push the story forward. And at the same time, help the audience be in the environment of the film itself."

Working closely with filmmakers Peter Jackson and Fran Walsh, Boyes says the trick was not to overwhelm the audience with sound, especially in scenes with a lot of action where the audience needed to focus on certain characters. "We're in orchestrated chaos at times in the 'Hobbit,' with hundreds of Orcs attacking and trying to keep our eyes on our heroes as they battle all these forces," Boyes said.

We'll find out this weekend if Dolby Atmos, which can also be used to remix older films, has what it takes to win an Oscar. Whether Atmos can convince people to spend a night out at the movies, that remains to be seen -- and heard.

(Credit: Google)

Google is serving up a tasty search side dish to give those querying for restaurants in the US an immediate way to glance at what's on the menu.

"Just search Google to show you the menu for the eatery you're considering and you can see it right on the top of your search page -- complete with tabs for different parts of the menu (like appetizers, brunch or dinner) and, often, prices -- before you make your reservation," the company announced Friday in a post published to its Google+ social network.

To get the menu results, you can type or speak the question "what's on the menu at [restaurant]?" or command Google to "show me the menu at [restaurant]" from any of Google's search products.

Google is working with an external data provider to source its menu data, though the company isn't disclosing exactly which one. The search giant also isn't revealing how many restaurants will come with menu info, but a spokesperson did say that results should cover most of the popular restaurants in the US.

The useful addition, which falls in line with Google's goal to help people get answers from search as quickly as possible, seems designed to cut out some of the convenience of middle-man applications like Yelp and Foursquare, which also come with menu information.

Google's menu-infused search experience, available on Web and mobile, is rolling out to people now in the US.

To avoid damaging the cells, the researchers exposed them for only 0.05 seconds at a time, but still managed to image nanometer-scale structures.

(Credit: Britta Weinhausen/University of Göttingen)

Typically, to view super small objects like molecules, the samples must first be dipped in a chemical preservative bath of death that keeps all parts entirely locked in place and thus viewable via very sophisticated tech such as X-ray devices and electron microscopes. The problem, of course, is that those molecules don't behave the same in death as they do in life, so while our current views of life at the nanoscale level are extremely detailed, they're technically speaking views of death, or at the very least, life frozen.

Now scientists at the University of Göttingen in Germany say that, using a new approach with one of the world's most sophisticated X-ray machines, the Petra III, they've been able to view -- however briefly -- actual living cells in their natural environment.

Reporting in the journal Physical Review Letters, the researchers say they grew cancer cells from the adrenal cortex on a silicon nitrate substance that is nearly transparent to X-rays. They then fed those cells nutrients and pumped away their metabolic products so that they could keep the cells alive in as close to a natural environment as possible while still being viewable by the higher-energy (aka ) Petra III. While lower-energy "soft" X-rays can already image living cells, the resolution isn't as good.

To avoid killing the cells with the powerful X-ray beams, they exposed the sample in a series of frames that each lasted a mere 0.05 seconds. They then used this same nanodiffraction approach on chemically fixed cells for comparison and found that their cellular structures were noticeably different when viewed on a scale of 30 to 50 nanometers (that is, millionths of a millimeter).

While this initial test was performed using extremely brief and powerful blasts on petri dish cancer cells, the researchers say it offers evidence that we should be able to study living cells at super high resolution without first having to change their molecular behavior -- which could dramatically improve our understanding of life, including diseases and treatments, at the nanoscale level.

Thriving doesn't always mean socially networking.

(Credit: Screenshot by Chris Matyszczyk/CNET)

Fathers, don't let your daughters anywhere near Facebook. Especially when you've just come into $80,000.

This is the painful moral from another day in Florida.

The story began so brightly for the Snay family. As the Miami Herald reports, Patrick Snay used to be the headmaster at Miami's Gulliver Preparatory School.

In 2010, his contract wasn't renewed. He claimed age discrimination. He also claimed there had been retaliation against his daughter, who was a pupil at the school.

At the end of 2011, Snay won a settlement, with $80,000 going to him personally, as well as $10,000 in previous earnings. But one of the conditions was that everything had to kept confidential.

Snay told his daughter, Dana. She popped along to Facebook to pop off to 1,200 of her closest friends.

She wrote: "Mama and Papa Snay won the case against Gulliver. Gulliver is now officially paying for my vacation to Europe this summer. SUCK IT."

So, about that confidentiality agreement.

Patrick Snay told the Herald: "We knew what the restrictions were, yet we needed to tell her something." This is understandable, but surely he also needed to tell her to not shout it to her 1,200 closest Facebook friends.

You'll be stunned into performing a pedicure with a hacksaw when I tell you that among her 1,200 closest Facebook friends were Gulliver students.

The school's lawyers were quickly informed and refused to pay. On Wednesday, Florida's Third District Court of Appeal ruled for the school.

Snay isn't yet all out of appeals. He can still try the Florida Supreme Court, for example. However, one wonders how Dana Snay feels about the whole thing.

It surely can't be easy knowing that you might have blown your dad's hard-earned settlement, through a moment of social indiscretion.

I went to Facebook (where else?) to see if I could locate her, and found a Dana Snay who claims her home as Miami and says she's a former student of Gulliver Preparatory School.

She now studies at Boston College and works as a barista at Starbucks.

Her timeline seems to be set to private.

The famous Catwoman-inspired catsuit was the main attraction of The Blonds' show at New York Fashion Week.

(Credit: The Blonds)

New York-based fashion duo The Blonds -- David Blond and Phillipe Blond -- strutted their fall and winter 2014 collection at New York Fashion Week with Selina Kyle-meets-Bettie Page punk-glam outfits that would make even Catwoman purr.

Inspired by costumes donned by Catwoman in comics, movies, and the iconic TV show "Batman," The Blonds' upcoming line of dresses, coats, and leggings looks like it would befit a life of crime and passion in Gotham City.

"This is a collection we wanted to do for some time now," designer David Blond told Billboard. "Selina Kyle (Catwoman) is a strong powerful woman who was both sexy and smart."

The Blonds are famous for outfitting some of the most fashion-fearless performers in the music industry, from Lady Gaga to Miley Cyrus. The black slinky dresses complete with cathead shoulder pads were the highlight of The Blonds' fashion show at Milk Studios. Even the whip-adorned strapless dress and Gotham-print leggings and jackets look like they clawed their way straight out of a Catwoman comic book.

This geektastic Gotham outfit by The Blonds is perfect for a big, bad night out in the city.

(Credit: The Blonds)

Other "Batman" villains were also represented on the catwalk. A white gown with a giant bedazzled grin represented The Joker. A metallic purple and green corset gave glimpses of Poison Ivy. Purple jumpsuit with a green furry jacket would make even the Riddler second-guess his own costume designer.

This isn't the first time fashion designers have found inspiration from comic books and sci-fi movies. The latest runway shows from Rodarte and Preen channeled the Force with gowns featuring images of Yoda, Luke Skywalker, Darth Vader, and other characters from "Star Wars." If this year's New York and London Fashion Week are any indication, comic book couture is finally chic.

He's a nice man.

(Credit: Funny Or Die screenshot by Chris Matyszczyk/CNET)

Comcast has often managed to be the target of abuse and, on a good day, gallows humor.

It regularly features in the Consumerist's list of worst American companies. Indeed, just three years ago, Comcast encouraged its staff to vote so that it wouldn't be named Worst Company in America.

But, now that it is proposing a merger with Time Warner Cable, things will certainly get better. The new Timecast (or Corner) will be a joy to do business with.

Your cable box will be automatically renewed every six months and installed by a happy, well-dressed employee. The box will even seem like it was created in the 21st century. And bundles will be replaced by oodles of individual choice.

Oh, of course I'm inventing this. Many are the critics who see the darkness of a cable Vader on the horizon.

The latest critics to offer their concerned opinion have emerged on Funny or Die.

For some reason, the creators of the oeuvre feel rather strongly that the merger would not be a net positive for real human beings.

Here we have an alleged representative from Comcast expressing the company's direct feelings: "We don't give a f***."

Should you be sensitive to such phraseology, I must warn you that it's uttered many times in this video.

However, it does offer supporting evidence for its vehemence. There's the lack of options; channels randomly disappearing; and the general "Walmart of Telecom" vibe.

"We don't give a f*** because we don't have to," explains the charming representative with disarming clarity.

In the interests of peculiar fairness, I confess that I am a Comcast customer and have only really had one or two instances of utterly, mindbogglingly appalling customer service.

Moreover, I tried to find the best defense of any aspect of its service I could find. Here, then, is an interesting argument from Joe Marchese, CEO of True(X) Media. It's entitled "Why You Should Shut Up And Love Your Cable Bundle."

Marchese suggests that your cable bundle is like a gym membership. You don't use all the machines, do you? Just being seen on those ellipticals can harm your image, can't it?

He explains: "The gym's role is to constantly optimize its offering to justify the total cost of membership to the broadest audience."

It's an interesting thought and one that, for example, Comcast has been stunningly poor at expressing.

Of course, those who have endured painful experiences with Comcast (or, indeed, with Time Warner) feel that some of its employees have an attitude not entirely geared to being helpful.

One way of describing it is: "I really, really don't care about you." Well, that's one way.

Klocwork's Larry Edelstein sent us this screen snapshot, complete with the arrows, showing how the company's product would have nabbed the 'goto fail' bug.

(Credit: Klocwork)

It was a single repeated line of code -- "goto fail" -- that left millions of Apple users vulnerable to Internet attacks until the company finally fixed it on Tuesday.

That OS X security vulnerability, which also affected iOS users, arose out of Apple's custom implementation of a security standard known as SSL/TLS. By including the "goto fail" line twice in a row, the normal error check for some types of encryption signatures fails.

Now Klocwork, a company that makes source code analysis tools, is demonstrating that their product would have caught the errant second "goto fail" line -- if only Apple had been using it.

"It's like an automated code review," says Larry Edelstein, a sales engineer with Klocwork, which is owned by Rogue Wave Software. "The best SCA products, like ours, offer powerful inter-procedural analysis that can spot those issues, which arise only when sections of code from several disparate locations get tied together in a single control flow."

Edelstein sent CNET a screen snapshot showing that Klocwork's analysis tool flagged line 632 and the "goto fail" bug with an error message saying: "Code is unreachable."

This was not merely a hypothetical security hole. Aldo Cortesi, a New Zealand security consultant, posted a version of the mitmproxy utility that gives access to encrypted traffic when, he said, the computer is using "Apple's broken implementation" of SSL/TLS. Cortesi added: "It's difficult to over-state the seriousness of this issue. With a tool like mitmproxy in the right position, an attacker can intercept, view and modify nearly all sensitive traffic."

And, of course, there's been plenty of speculation that the National Security Agency or other spy agencies would have exploited the bug. (If nothing else, they have the budget to purchase a license to Klocwork or similar products and test Apple's encryption code, which is publicly posted.)

Apple did not respond to questions for this article.

The inimitable Ashley Esqueda

(Credit: Ashley Esqueda)

I'm wildly excited to announce some CNET news today. Starting in mid-March, Ashley Esqueda will be joining the CNET family as a senior editor and on-air host. We're thrilled to welcome her as a new member of our tech-loving family working alongside our cast of wonderful video personalities.

You probably already know Ashley from her many shows and her irrepressible Twitter presence. She's everywhere online and has spent the last few years doing excellent on-camera work for TechnoBuffalo, Tecca, and Escapist. But in case you don't, here's what you should know: Ashley is an on-air tech expert and, in her free time, a player of pretty much every video game ever. If you follow her, she'll make your life more fun and better informed.

Ashley and the rest of the CNET video crew will be hard at work planning something big and new for CNET. We can't tell you quite yet what she's plotting, but when we're ready, you're going to love it. Stay tuned.

It should be no surprise that this week's video roundup is all about Mobile World Congress. All eyes were on Samsung this year as they announced an assortment of new goodies, including the Gear 2, new Gear Fit as well as the highly-anticipated Galaxy S5. Senior Editor Jessica Dolcourt runs down the key specs and features of the new superphone from Samsung in our First Take. With its fingerprint scanner, heart rate sensor, and a whole roster of muscular specs loaded with features Apple Byte wonders, should Apple be worried? Would the rumored iPhone 6 be able to top it? And to get the full lowdown on the best of the event on video, make sure you watch our 12-must see videos of Mobile World Congress.

While Mobile World Congress might have been the been the main attraction this week, we still have other great video content to share, including a behind-the-scenes look at Dolby Labs and their incredible new Atmos sound system which was used in Oscar-nominated films "Gravity" and "The Hobbit: Desolation of Smaug."

Plus: How to text for free abroad, why we dig the 2014 Lexus GS 450h and quite possibly the first product review ever that required us to consume whiskey.

3. A waterproof phone coating you won't believe

This up-and-coming waterproof tech makes your mobile dunk-proof, without sacrificing design.

4. Apple Byte: Should Apple be worried about the Galaxy S5?

Samsung reveals their newest Galaxy S5, so can the rumored iPhone 6 top it? Apple's "gotofail" security bug gets patched, and our JBL Pulse winners!

5. Breathometer breathalyzer a fun party game, but not the most accurate

An accessory for iPhones, the Breathometer is very portable and can be fun to pass around at parties, but its results should not be taken as permission to drive.

6. Samsung Gear Fit gets its curve on

Samsung's new fitness tracking workout buddy conforms to your wrist while minding your health.

7. Dolby Atmos sound tech puts you in Smaug's lair

Dolby Atmos is used in the Oscar-nominated films "Gravity" and "The Hobbit: Desolation of Smaug." CNET's Kara Tsuboi goes behind the scenes at Dolby Labs with Academy Award-winning sound mixer Christopher Boyes.

8. Adventures in Tech: How Samsung built its Galactic Empire

As the S5 becomes official, Adventures in Tech explains how Samsung Galaxy brand became a global tech superpower.

9. Text while abroad with these apps

Last week, Facebook purchased WhatsApp for $19 billion. Not familiar with the mobile-messaging app? CNET's Kara Tsuboi brings you up to date on WhatsApp, which boasts 450 million users around the world, and other apps for free texting in this Tech Minute.

10. We could drive this Lexus all day and night

The 2014 Lexus GS 450h features many techie goodies, but how does it stack up against its luxury competition? CNET's Wayne Cunningham takes one for a test drive.

A billboard on a Stockholm subway platform comes alive whenever a train pulls into the station.

(Credit: Video screenshot by Michael Franco/CNET)

If you've ever waited on a subway platform, you're familiar with that woosh of air that comes through the tunnel prior to a train's arrival. Swedish ad agency Akestam Holst and production company Stopp produced an ad for a new line of hair care products that puts that phenomenon to good use.

The creative Swedes put ultrasonic sensors behind video screens on a subway platform in Stockholm. They then connected the sensors to the screen via a Raspberry Pi microcomputer.

The video screens showed a woman with long flowing hair. When the sensors detected the approaching train they triggered the video image to show the woman's hair flying around her face as if it were being blown by the wind from the tunnel. Simple, but effective. So effective, in fact, that the company left the ad for Apotek Hjärtat's Apolosophy products up for five days even though it had originally only planned it as a day-long stunt.

Take a look...

The government of Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, left, is being accused of creating and distributing malware by German security firm G Data.

Here, Putin, Gazprom Chief Executive Officer Alexei Miller, and former German chancellor Gerhard Schroeder look at a screen as they attend the inauguration of the Nord Stream Project information mount at the gas compressor station 'Portovaya' outside Vyborg, on Sept. 6, 2011.

(Credit: Alexey Nikolsky/AFP/Getty Images)

The German computer security and antivirus detection company G Data Security has alleged that the Russian government is behind the newly-detected malware known as "Uroburos."

G Data bases its case for Russian government involvement on the complexity of the malware and the presence of Cyrillic words in the malware sample. G Data blog author "MN" points to file names, encryption keys, and behavior of Uroburos as evidence that the Russian government played a role in the creation of the malware.

Another key component, said MN, is that Uroburos looks for a previous piece of malware that's been tied to Russia, but not its government conclusively.

"Uroburos checks for the presence of Agent.BTZ and remains inactive if it is installed," said MN. Agent.BTZ is extremely damaging malware linked to a severe attack against the Pentagon in 2008.

Just yesterday, at the TrustyCon conference for trustworthy technology, Mikko Hypponen, the chief technology officer at security firm F-Secure, said that there are few governments actively involved in writing and distributing malware.

"Ten years ago this would've been science fiction," he said. Arguably the most famous example of government-sourced malware is the Stuxnet worm, which targeted a specific kind of software that controls nuclear facilities. The United States and Israel have been implicated in the creation and distribution of Stuxnet.

Uroburos is a rootkit made of two files, "a driver and an encrypted virtual file system," that can "take control of an infected computer, execute arbitrary commands, and hide system activities." The malware is highly dangerous, MN alleges, because its structure is "modular" and "flexible," meaning that new malicious functions can be added to it easily.

"Uroburos' driver part is extremely complex and is designed to be very discrete and very difficult to identify," MN said. In the Uroburos sample discussed by G Data, the malware is designed to steal files and monitor network traffic.

The malware name is a variant spelling for Ouroboros, the ancient Greek symbol of a snake or dragon eating its own tail.

GData says that Uroburos is "one of the most advanced rootkits we have ever analyzed," and pegs its origins to 2011, the earliest year that its driver was compiled. It works on both x86 and x64 Windows computers.

According to G Data, it operates by commanding one infected computer with an Internet connection to infect other networked computers, even those without a direct connection to the Internet. Uroburos gathers whatever data it's been instructed to collect, then surreptitiously sends it back to the malware authors using the same method of hopping from machine to machine until it finds one with an Internet connection.

"This malware behavior is typical for propagation in networks of huge companies or public authorities. The attackers expect that their target does have computers cut off from the Internet and uses this technique as a kind of workaround to achieve their goal," said MN.

Neither G Data nor the Russian consulate in San Francisco returned requests for comment. CNET will update the story when we hear back from them.

TrustyCon co-organizer and host Alex Stamos encourages attendees to rethink how to build trustworthy computing systems, at San Francisco's AMC Metreon theater on Thursday, February 27, 2014.

(Credit: Seth Rosenblatt/CNET)

Yahoo has named Alex Stamos, current chief technology officer for security firm Artemis and co-founder of TrustyCon, as its next chief information security officer, Recode's Arik Hesseldahl is reporting based on sources familiar with the matter.

The company's last CISO, Justin Somaini, left Yahoo more than a year ago. Stamos, a well-known member of the industry and frequent face on the stage of prominent security conferences, will be filling the role starting March 10 and reporting directly to CEO Marissa Mayer. His position at Artemis remains unclear at this time.

On February 27, Stamos and a group of fellow security industry leaders held a counter-conference in San Francisco to protest the RSA Conference taking place there this week. TrustyCon -- for the Trustworthy Technology Conference -- was aimed at rebelling against RSA's involvement with the National Security Agency, which was first revealed by Reuters last year.

The event, which organizers say must continue as the privacy issues encapsulating the security industry evolve, featured numerous speakers who withdrew from the RSA Conference in protest. It focused mainly on discussions of building trust, both in the industry and in the relationships companies and government have with the public.

Yahoo's re-energized push for security involvement at the executive level comes at a dire time for the Web giant's reliability reputation. A far-reaching ad-related malware attack first reported last month put 2 million PCs and Yahoo users' personal data at risk, and Yahoo has been going to great lengths of late to match the security efforts of competitors like Google by sending searches on its home page and other outbound traffic from its services through secure servers.

But perhaps most relevant to Yahoo's new appointment is the startling news from yesterday, revealed in documents from Edward Snowden, that the GCHQ, with help from the NSA, intercepted and stored images of millions of users of Yahoo's Webcam chats without the technical ability to differentiate between US and UK citizens and with no legal restrictions barring that collection of foreign Webcam images. Yahoo, speaking to The Guardian, called Optic Nerve, as the program was code-named, "a whole new level of violation of our users' privacy."

(Credit: Valve)

This is the best thing. The best. Imagine if GLaDOS from Portal had amnesia and went to work for NASA with a pair of...well, idiots, and this is what you might get.

The video was created as part of NASA's educational outreach program at the Spitzer Space Telescope, which focuses on STEM education.

In the video, a new AI is installed by two NASA technicians, only to discover that its nefarious plans to conquer the world (which it naturally has) will be thwarted by a raft of yet-uninstalled systems, leading to a simple, yet fascinating explanation of nuclear fusion, as occurs on the sun, and how it differs from nuclear fission.

If GLaDOS becomes the new voice of NASA's educational videos, we're about to learn a whole lot more about space.

Michelle Starr is the tiger force at the core of all things. She also writes about cool stuff like 3D printing, space, and apps as CNET Australia's Crave editor. But mostly she's the tiger force thing.